In the prior art there have been various toy devices representing animated characters or creatures where the mouth opened and then closed about a victim or object to be eaten.
One prior art shark game involved a stationary shark where the jaw remained open for a predetermined time interval and then closed to define the end of the game period.
There was an item made by Action Toy and Games of Great Britain which appeared in their 1988 toy catalog called "Shark Alert" where a randomly programmed toy shark wiggled about and operated to eat various objects.
There was also a toy item known as "Hungry Hippos" where a plurality of manually operated hippo characters tilted their heads upwardly while the whole unit representing the animal moved forwardly. The head then came down upon marbles or the like to "gobble up" these marbles. The hippos were stationary except for the limited forward and backward movement and the pivotal lifting of the head.
There have been various other devices where the pivoted mouth of the creature opened and shut.
Further, U.S. Pat. No. 4,162,069 shows a toy vehicle which advances along a roadway while the players hurry to add planks to extend the roadway before the vehicle arrives at an unfinished portion and goes off the end.